Thursday February 09, 2017

Is Apple going to start claiming that they invented 3D web graphics now? If this "WebGPU" Metal-based API proposal of theirs takes off, maybe they will. Basically, Apple thinks WebGL (the current standard) is no good in terms of performance and that a solution that could access modern GPU features would be way better. However, some are already seeing this as a flop because the company may be contending with pre-existing options such as Direct3D 12, Vulkan, and OpenGL. There is also the idea that Metal doesn’t play well with other platforms to begin with.

Apple is promoting the development of a standard API that would allow web browsers to access GPU features for 3D graphics. The team behind Apple's WebKit browser engine proposed a community group at the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) called the W3C Community Group for GPU on the Web that would be charged with providing an interface between the web browser and modern 3D graphics and computation capabilities in native system platforms. "The goal is to design a new web API that exposes these modern technologies in a performant, powerful, and safe manner," the community group proposal states.